Second Chance Chapter 2154

Pursuing the defeated and chasing the fleeing north, hundreds of corpses lay strewn, the short two-hundred-metre distance becoming an inescapable nightmare for the Japanese pirates.
Fortunately, the battlefield was not far from their temporary camp, just over two hundred metres, and luckily, they ran faster than their pirate comrades, thus barely escaping with their lives.
Those short-legged true Japanese pirates and the slower pirate comrades were overtaken by the Zhejiang army, stabbed to death on the spot.
Although the pirate comrades were all clad in armour, they couldn’t withstand three or five Zhejiang soldiers chasing and stabbing them.
Moreover, many pirate comrades, in their haste to flee, discarded their helmets and armour, only to be caught by the Zhejiang army, their fate utterly惨烈.
They were stabbed into bloody gourds!
“Quick, quick, send reinforcements, the Zhejiang army is coming! The Zhejiang army is coming!” The Japanese pirates, crying for their parents, fled into the temporary camp, shouting for help.
Fortunately, the Zhejiang army, after pursuing two hundred metres, halted their chase one arrow’s distance from the pirates’ temporary camp, allowing the defeated pirates who escaped into the camp to breathe a sigh of relief, thanking their ancestors for preserving their lives.
The defeated pirates collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily, both from exhaustion and the terror of surviving such an ordeal.
Just a little more, just a little more, and their lives would have been lost!
Xue Tao, dishevelled and supported by two personal guards, fled into the temporary camp, still shaken to the core.
Seeing that the Zhejiang army had indeed ceased their pursuit, Xue Tao’s panic subsided, but as he looked around, he saw only just over two hundred pirates had escaped back, each in a wretched state, like dogs with broken backs.
Outside the temporary camp, the Zhejiang soldiers had stopped their pursuit, leaving behind a chaotic scattering of pirate corpses, with some pirates kneeling here and there, begging for mercy.
The Zhejiang soldiers, like tethering dogs, bound the kneeling pirates with ropes, stringing them together.
Many Zhejiang soldiers swept the battlefield, skillfully severing the heads of dead pirates with their knives.
Like elegant butchers, the entire battlefield was awash with blood, resembling a slaughterhouse.
Lightly wounded pirates were also bound like dogs by the Zhejiang army, strung together.
As for the heavily wounded captives, the Zhejiang army ordered the pirate captives to carry them away. Originally, Liu Dadao had suggested finishing off these heavily wounded captives with a knife, but Zhu Ping’an ordered that, in this battle, even the heavily wounded captives were not to be executed. They were to be carried to the Zhejiang army’s camp for treatment, their survival left to fate.
The reason Zhu Ping’an ordered that even the heavily wounded captives not be killed but treated in the camp was to show the pirates in the temporary camp that being a captive of the Zhejiang army wasn’t so bad. The Zhejiang army was humane, treating captives well.
This way, in future battles, it would weaken the pirates’ resistance. If defeated, they might as well surrender, since the Zhejiang army treated captives kindly.
“I thought the Zhejiang army would stab all the wounded to death to save medicine, manpower, food, and silver. I didn’t expect the Zhejiang army to be so decent, carrying them back and treating their wounds.”
“For us, the lightly wounded might be spared, but the heavily wounded would all be stabbed to death to save food.”
Many pirates observing from the temporary camp, seeing how the Zhejiang army treated the heavily wounded pirates, couldn’t help but whisper among themselves.
The Zhejiang army’s actions deeply moved them.
Consequently, many pirates began to entertain the thought: “In future clashes with the Zhejiang army, if we’re truly at the end of our rope, there’s no need to fight to the death or trade life for life. Being a captive isn’t bad, at least we’d keep our lives. As long as we’re alive, there’s hope…”
“Look at General Xue, all dishevelled, like a beaten dog with a broken spine…”
“Keep your voice down, are you courting death? If he hears you, he’ll have you killed!”
“He still has the face to kill me? After such a pathetic defeat, he still has the face to kill me? If it were me, I’d have smashed my head and died already!”
Many of the surrounding pirates pointed and mocked Xue Tao and the others who fled back to the camp.
Hearing the surrounding chatter, Xue Tao looked at his own side, then at the battlefield…
惨烈!
Truly惨烈!
Before the battle, he had been full of confidence, leading a thousand elite and fierce pirates, their momentum like a tiger swallowing thousands of miles. Yet, in less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, they had fallen to this state.
“Having suffered such a crushing defeat, how can I face the Great King! I, your incompetent general, can only atone with my death!”
Overcome with grief, Xue Tao drew his Japanese sword, closed his eyes, and slashed at his neck.
“General, no!”
His personal guard, seeing this, shouted in panic and rushed to seize the sword from Xue Tao’s hand.
They managed to wrest the sword away just in time, though a bloody mark was left on Xue Tao’s neck.
“Why stop me? After such a disastrous defeat, how can I face the Great King? I’m utterly ashamed, there’s only death left…” Xue Tao’s face flushed red and white, overwhelmed with shame.
In that moment, he truly wanted to die!
He truly had no face to meet Wang Zhi, and even less to face Mao Haifeng, who would surely humiliate him.
The surrounding mockery gave him a taste of what to expect.
After all, just yesterday, he had mocked Mao Haifeng and Da You Zhengchuan in every way possible. Neither of them was one to swallow insults quietly, so how could they not mock and humiliate him in return?
Impossible!
Absolutely impossible!
Especially since he was now in an even worse state than Mao Haifeng. Mao Haifeng’s forces still had about half left, but he, with a thousand pirates, was now down to just over two hundred. Had the battlefield not been so close to the temporary camp, allowing them to flee back in time, and had the Zhejiang army chased them further than two hundred metres, they would likely have been completely wiped out, with even Xue Tao becoming a prisoner of the Zhejiang army…
Thinking back to his bold claims before the battle—how Zhu Ping’an, after defeating Mao Haifeng, had grown arrogant and lost his bearings; how he, Xue Tao, would make Zhu Ping’an doubt his life; how he would fight Zhu Ping’an to honour the Great King and show Zhu Ping’an their true strength; how he told Mao Haifeng to watch closely and learn, saying it would benefit him in the future…
Now, every boastful word had turned into a resounding slap, striking him across the face.
One slap.
Two slaps.
Countless slaps, one after another, landing on Xue Tao’s face…
And the surrounding pointing, mocking, and gossip all transformed into more resounding slaps, hitting Xue Tao’s face.
Shame!
Utter shame!
Overwhelmed with unbearable shame, Xue Tao spat out a mouthful of blood, his heart consumed by rage. His vision darkened, and he fainted.